Looking Back on Yesterday

Don't talk to me in the bathroom!!

2006-10-10T10:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, so i haven't posted in ages, so if no one reads this, it won't bother me. And I'm not gonna promise (again) that I'm going to update this every month or every week just because i know I can't hold up my end of that. But if I do update every week or so, that would be awesome. And if someone, anyone, reads this, that would be even awesome-err.

Anyways, so on to my ranting and then maybe some life updates.

First, the rant. Not sure if i covered this before, but do not ever talk to me in the bathroom...ever!! At work we have one main bathroom for the front office, and i try to stay away from it and use the one on the shopfloor. But anytime i'm up front for long periods of time, its possible I'll end up in there. So the other day, I go in, and my boss is right behind me. I try to quickly dart into the first stall, hoping he won't try to talk to me, and sure enough, he saw me, and still starting talking, asking me questions about the baseball playoffs. Granted, I love baseball, and any other time would be more than willing to talk about it. But not now, not while I'm, umm, handling my business...not a good time. And he wouldn't drop it. What am i really supposed to say besides just answering the questions? Then some other guy heard us talking, so after my boss left, he picked up where he left off!! All in all a horrible experience. Words of advice for you bathroom talkers: the only acceptable place to talk in a bathroom is when washing your hands, after the damage has been done. And even that is questionable. Best bet, give someone a head nod, and move on...catch up with them later!

Ahh, so now that that's out of the way, on to what is going down with Rizzi Bowler. Lately not too much different that usual, still working at my same job, still not that great, still living in Park Ridge, still ok with that. Since its been a long, long time since my last post, i won't go too far back into the summer with the highlights. But more recently, I went and saw the band Meg & Dia play in DeKalb this past weekend at the House Cafe. Great little show, those girls rock. The opening bands were ok, one guy, Ronnie Day, sounded like the next Dashboard Confessional. All of his songs were about some girl that cheated on him after 5 years of being together. After the show, all the girls in the crowd were all over him....apparently songs about breakup work that well. I got out to a few baseball games this summer, twice at Wrigley, twice at Milwaukee, and once to US Cellular Field (sox vs. Twins of course). The sox/twins game was the first time i ever took a date to a baseball game. What a waste of money. I'm not a cheap guy, but come on, i spent over a hundred bucks on that date (the 4th date mind you) with a girl I met at a wedding. And what did I get for my troubles? I wave goodbye as I walked to my car after walking her to her door. Not even a hug...after 4 dates. A high five would have been nice at that point. Oh well. Also got to see Vedera for the 3rd time back in August, another great performance, with 4 new songs in the mix...i'm excited for a new album. I got to talk to Kristin May again, but didn't put any moves on her, not that I would really know what to do anyways. Sorry Rick, trust me, i wanted to. If we get another chance to talk to her, I'll have to try a little harder. I could have sworn a saw a ring on her finger when she was onstage, but can't confirm anything.

Ok, so on to my what's new in my 2 favorite things: TV and Music

TV: Monday nights is all about CBS (except when Bears play Mondays): How I met your Mother and Two and a Half Men....hilarious

Tuesday: The world series of poker is officially over, but they are still airing stuff, which is always a good watch. almost forgot...law and order Criminal Intent...Detective Goran is the man.

Wednesday: Best night of TV! Laguna Beach Season 3 is almost, almost as good as the first 2, and still plenty of time to get better. Afterwards, a show about Hoover, AL high school football called Two-a-days....also great show. MTV deserves props for this lineup combo. Mike, you are missing out buddy.

Thursday is garbage, which is good, cuz i bowl anyways.

Friday: Numbers on CBS...great show, although not as math-driven as past seasons...they don't work it in as well as before.

New Music:

Meg & Dia - Something Real - definately a top five of 2006 CD. kinda punk, kinda indie...all awesome. I was really surprised there was only like 70 people at the show Sunday night...maybe cuz it was DeKalb? But northern ILL is right there, and its pretty big...

From First to Last - Heroine - Not bad, heavy but not too heavy, just nothing sticks out in my mind to make mention of. All i can think of is, well, it was better than Atreyu.

Halifax - the Inevitability of a Stange World - this CD has grown on me in the last few weeks, and might crack the top 5 after all... I listened to it while running yesterday, and found it out rocks more than it appears when you are just sitting at work

Panic! at the Disco - a Fever you can't sweat out - I almost hate myself for liking this CD, but its some catchy shit, what can I say. You could probably dance to a lot of the songs, if you are into that type of thing. Some of the songs are about weddings and whores and strip clubs, so definately not a good choice for wedding dance music.

Ok, so thats about all I got for today. I've thought about creating my own questionairre thing and posting it soon (don't hold your breath) so that might be something I'll do soon just for shits. And I'm almost 26...do birthdays even matter anymore?

later,

Rizzi

Because I saw it on Tree's Blog

2006-04-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

I just like filling these things out, so here goes, never seen this one before:

A. Four Jobs I’ve Had:
1. Process Engineer
2. Asphalt tester
3. Frozen foods stocker at Jewel (after years of bagging and facing)
4. I put up signs for a Kids R Us closing for a few months....kinda fun actually

B. Four Movies I’ll Watch Over and Over:
1. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2. Varsity Blues
3. Old School
4. Super Troopers

C. Four Places I Called Home:
1. Park Ridge, IL
2. Lombard, IL
3. Valparaiso, IN (I was there 4 years of college, gots to count for something)
4. Lombard, IL (different house, same town)

D. Four TV Shows I Love:
1. Numb3rs
2. Law and Order: Criminal Intent
3. How I met your Mother
4. Laguna Beach (I refuse to watch season 3!!)

E. Four Places I’ve Been on Vacation:
1. Jacksonville, FL
2. Rogers, AR
3. Minnesota
4. Escanaba, MI

F. Four Websites I Visit Daily:
1. http://www.fanball.com (baseball news)
2. http://www.rotoworld.com (baseball news)
3. http://www.mtv.com (i need to be in the know)
4. http://www.yahoo.com (for email, sports, news, etc)

G. My Four Favorite Foods:
1. WATERMELON
2. Frozen Cheese Pizza
3. Skittles
4. Brownies

H. Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. My Apartment
2. At a Twin's game
3. Outside
4. Asleep

I. Four People I’m Tagging:Don't know what this means yet, so i'll switch topics....

I(2). Top 4 CD's i've been listening to lately
1. Vedera - The Weight of an Empty Room
2. Yellowcard - Lights and Sounds
3. Thrice - Vheissu
4. Paramore - All we Know is Falling

Know everyone knows a lot of useless crap about me.

Seminars Rule

2006-04-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

Its only been a few days since my last post, so I don't have bore anyone with a month's worth of stupid crap to fill some space, always a good thing. The biggest thing for me over the last few days is that the baseball season has begun, which is great. This also means that softball season is right around the corner, and our team practice last night went pretty good, even though the field was soaking wet and I messed up a finger trying to knock down a line drive. My pitching should be solid this year, and the guys at work are putting in some good effort during practice, which is great. Whiffleball is also hopefully right around the corner, i set up a spot in my apartment to practice my pitching, although without wind you don't get much movement on the curveball....ahh the freedom of living by yourself!!

Monday was great though. I got to sleep in, then drive to Schaumburg for a Seminar for work. The class didn't start until 8:45am, which is why i got to sleep in, but because of traffic, some other people were late, and we didn't start until 9:15. We learned a lot of course, but who wants to hear about that right? Anyways, lunch was provided and it was solid, with some of the best brownies ever for dessert (ok, so i took 2...they were THAT good). The class was supposed to get out at 4pm, which would have been great, but instead, we got out at 2:30!! As there were 2 other guys with me from work, and there was a sports bar right next door, and there was a Cubs game on....we ended up hanging out there til about 4pm anyways. It's not like we could have driven all the way back to work and done anything useful. And yes, i did have a Corona...but just one. After watching the Cubs win, we took off, and i stopped by Woodfield mall to check out the new MLB gear at Champs. after all this, i still got home around 5:45, as usual.

last night, due to softball practice, I missed the Real World...bummer. It was getting pretty stupid anyways, and it'll be real easy to catch up next week. I did manage to tape and watch a new show called "Teachers" on NBC, and I definately think Tree should check that out if she hasn't already, its pretty funny. Over the weekend, I caught this special about these 2 crazy guys who robbed a bank in California and got into a huge shootout with police for hours....it was unbeleiveable, but it really did happen, about 10 years ago I think.

I also bought one of the first books i can recall myself buying in a long time: "Fantasyland". Its about a guy in this ultra-competitive experts Fantasy Baseball leagues. Since he's a sportswriter, he actually has the connections to go and talk to the players he's drafted, and ask them about their numbers and stuff like that. Should make for an interesting read (I just ordered it on Amazon yesterday).

Well, thats about it....I'll try to squeeze in that top 4's list that Tree had up in a few minutes here, but thats about all the update i have for today. I did have one question that i've been pondering for weeks, maybe someone can help me with. Is gambling considered a Sin? Because I'm pretty sure I've heard it is (i'm not to knowledgeable on these things) but I've seen this one Catholic school advertising on its billboard that they are having a Casino night....doesn't make much sense, does it? Oh well.

Until next time,

Rizzi

Another month with no updates

2006-03-31T10:49:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm just going to have to live with the fact that I can't update weekly like I always assume I can. My big Fantasy Baseball keeper league draft has pre-occupied the majority of my free time over the last month, but has now come to an end, which is good and bad. I really think i drafted a great team, given the format of the league, which i will explain some other time.

So what's new? Well, let's run down the last month's highlights:

Flew to Cincinnati for work, and had the most expensive dinner i've ever paid for: $108 for 2 people ( I was traveling with one of our sales reps). I had a great piece of chicken with some kick-ass mashed potatoes, and a couple strawberry margaritas....good stuff. Brad had a steak....not sure what specialty type it was. But the restaurant was right on the River, and our table was right at the windows facing it. We could see the Great American Ballpark (Reds) across the way, along with the field where the Bengals play. The visit itself went ok, but when i travel for work, it usually means I'm getting yelled at for some problem we caused them.

A bunch of us went and saw the Taste of Chaos concert in Milwaukee 2 weekends ago. Story of the Year and Thrice were the highlights, but Atreyu wasn't too bad (everyone knows what March 28th was, right!!!!!) I must say though, the band As I lay Dying really should work on some vocals, all he does is growl into the mic, not exactly my favorite style of music...but the music alone was pretty solid. We left before the Deftones came out to close the night off, none of us were too excited to see them anyways.

We had our first softball practice at work this past Wednesday....pitching is a little rusty, but I'll get it back soon enough. I think we have enough talent to get a few wins, but i was disappointed that my team from last year also plays on Wednesday nights now, because they wanted me to come back and pitch and i was really excited to hear that. But i had already decided to form a team at work.

I'm up to Harry Potter book 5 now, thanks to Rick. Its been pretty solid, but i haven't gotten too far into it yet. I'm looking to pick up the book "fantasyland" about some guy who wrote about his obsession for fantasy baseball...sounds like my kind of book.

I installed my parents new DSL internet, as they got rid of comcast for cable and internet. For some reason, I could not get the installation disk to work. So after an hour of disconnecting and running wires through our basement, i had to call the cable provider and spent about 2 hours on the phone.....finally got it to work though.

I guess thats about it, that seems like enough to me. Oh, i picked up a couple new CD's, here are the reviews:

June - A friend from work recommended this last year, and i finally got around to it. Not bad, they are billed as a taking back sunday/ hawthorne heights clone, and they are close. Pretty straightforward stuff, no surprises, but no real standout songs to speak of.

System of a Down - Mesmerize: what a crazy CD!! There are some crazy songs that have all kinds of topics, like "Violent Pornography" and "Cigaro" that are just bizarre, but that's what makes it fun to listen to. I really like the guitarist's voice when he sings parts of songs, it reminds me of Billy Joel of Green Day.

Atreyu - Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses: They sounded ok at Taste of Chaos, so i thought i'd check it out. this was their oldest release, from 2002. Not bad, but the vocals are a little lacking, i thought they sounded better live, but maybe the newer songs have the better vocals. Not sure if I'll be picking up that new cd that came out "MARCH 28!!!", but all in all, they are a good band if you like a lot of screaming and loud music. If they clear up the vocals a little more, they could be really good, at least in my opinion. But maybe that would change who they are, and that would be a bad thing.

Alright, now i gotta go....look for a top 4 list like Tree's sometime next week. Until then, here's my 2006 MLB keeper team staring lineup....i think we're good to go for the playoffs this year!!

later,

Rizzi Bowler

C - Joe Mauer, MIN
1B - Mark Teixeira, TEX
2B - Brian Roberts, BAL
3B - David Wright, NYM
SS - Jhonny Peralta, CLE
OF - Hideki Matsui, NYY
OF - Grady Sizemore, CLE
OF - Rocco Baldelli, TB
DH - Hank Blalock (3B), TEX

SP - Johan Santana, MIN
SP - Jake Peavy, SD
SP - Ben Sheets, MIL
SP - Danny Haren, OAK
SP - Erik Bedard, BAL

RP - Kelvim Escobar, ANA
RP - Jose Valverde, ARI
RP - Neil Cotts, CHW
RP - Justin Duchscherer, OAK
RP - Travis Bowyer, FLA

BENCH:

1B - Justin Morneau, MIN
2B - Josh Barfield, SD
1B/OF - Brad Wilkerson, TEX
SP - Oliver Perez, PIT
SP - Javier Vazquez, CHW
SP - Scott Olsen, FLA

I Still Suck at this

2006-02-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a nice run of about 2 whole weeks of posting once per week, and now its a month later and i'm finally back into this. So lets try again, and see where we go. First, some random observations.

1. I almost killed somebody friday night driving home from a party in Bolingbrook. this idiot in front of me on 294 north pulled over (we were both in the righthand lane) and a) didn't pull over all the way and b) opened his door as soon as his car went into park. Now, its not so much that i couldn't react in time, but if there had been anyone in the lane next to me, i would have had no where to go. His whole door was in my lane, as was he when he stepped out of his car. And he wasn't too far in front of me when he pulled over either. Luckily, there was no incident, but i don't like it when its that close.

2. Don't take my kleenex everyday at work, then, before i come in on a monday, try to take one, realize its the last one, and put it back in the box....that is the stupidest thing ever. It bothers me enough that this guy takes it everyday without asking (if he'd have asked the first time, that would have been good enough). But he offers nothing to share in return, and now has clearly gone and put a tissue back in the box so he isn't caught taking the last one. What a Dick. As you might be able to tell, I dislike the guy enough that this just puts me over the top on a day like today.

i thought i had more, but thats all i got for now. So what has been going on for the last month?

Well, i went out with a girl 2 times, had plans to see her a third, and then she called to cancel saying she was sick. Despite a couple attempts to get a hold of her since then, she never returned a phone call or email. I really thought she had a lot of potential, and would have at least had the decency to let me know she wasn't interested instead of planning a date, cancelling it, and then never calling me back. Guys are stupid too, but girls don't get enough credit for it when it comes to breakups and blowoffs. It kinda feels like being on Punk'd, like how will the next one top this crap? Oh well, thanks to a few good friends an co-workers listening to me rant for hours (probably excessive for 2 dates, but if you knew me you'd understand), i'm completely over it. I even worked up the nerve to call Jewel and ask out a girl that had talked to me there a couple times and who I'd also talked to at my gym a couple times. We went out to lunch and she was really nice, but haven't had a chance to hang out with her since, as she holds down 2 jobs while job hunting.

Recently we got a chance to see one of my favorite new bands, Vedera, play at Schuba's. My buddy Alex and were able to talk to their lead singer, Kristin May, who is amazingly beautiful. Too bad they are from Kansas City, and she probably has hundreds of guy fans who think she's just as beautiful and talented as I do. But they are definately one of my favorite bands now, and i was lucky enough to get her to sign a CD and a poster that another band, Karma with a K, had made for the show. I could definately see Vedera breaking the mainstream and radio in the next year given the right push.

I also recently got the new Yellowcard CD, Lights and Sounds, which is slowly growing on me as I initially only liked a couple songs. The new Matchbook romance CD is ok, but different from their last album, and not exactly what i was hoping for from them. Tomorrow we get the new Hawthorne Heights album, which i hear is pretty good, and I might check a band i read about in AP magazine, Paramore. Their songs samples on the net sound pretty good, too bad i don't have a computer at home to go on myspace and or band sites and hear more.

So i guess thats about it, don't want to overwhelm anyone on my first post back. I definately should have a ton to talk about with Fantasy baseball approaching, and i'm trying to organize a team for 16-inch Softball through my work. Speaking of work, i got a long story about that, but shouldn't really post anything just in case. But ask me about work if you see me.

I guess thats about it. All in all, its been an interesting last month, some good, some bad, and a lot in between. Can't promise anything, but i'll try to make more regular appearances here if and when i remember.

later,

Rizzi

My boring TV schedule

2006-01-18T10:43:00.000-08:00

I don't really have a whole lot to say today, but i figured there might be 1 person out there who is interested in what is on my mind today. So I'm just gonna talk about what i know, TV. I was actually thinking about this last night...how much TV do I "really" watch? And here's what it comes down to:

Monday: Currently, i'm watching only "the gauntlet 2" a version of the road rules /real world challenge on MTV. i'll sometimes watch a little bit of WWE RAW, but never enough to justify it being something I really watch. I also just started recording "The King of Queens" and "How I met your Mother" both of which are pretty funny shows on CBS. I recommend checking them both out, especially "how i met your mother" for all the single guys reading this...funny stuff.

Tuesday: Never really cared for Tuesdays, except when the World series of poker series was on ESPN. But last night was the season premier of "Love Monkey" on CBS, and since it co stars Jason Priestley from "90210" i figured it had to be good, right? Actually, its about a guy who works for a record label as an A/R guy (he explained what that stood for, but i forgot already) and is single in New York, so its all about him discovering/signing artists, and how he bumps into and dates a bunch of really beautiful girls, while his best friend also happens to be a really beautiful, single girl. Funny how that works out for some guys. Its the guy who used to be on the show "Ed", i think Tom Cavanaugh? Not a bad looking dude, but c'mon, its almost as hard to watch George Costanza date a beautiful girl on everye episode of Seinfeld....no one is this lucky, they just seem to find him. But still, the show is about Music, and i love music. The guy he signed this week sounded and seemed a lot like John Mayer...but i didn't check the credits to verify. Definately worth a look if you have a free hour on Tuesday night.

Wednesday: Currently, absolutely nothing...a rather boring night if you ask me. Which reminds me, i have to find something to watch/do tonight.

Thursday: I have bowling on Thursday nights, so i've never really tried to watch anything, works out better that way.

Friday: The best TV night of the week!! 2 of the best shows, "Monk" (on USA) and "Numb3rs", on CBS, both at 9pm. You have to watch one, while recording the other, if you are like me and don't have Tivo. But both shows are great, which makes planning things to do on a Friday night that much harder, although i do make rare exceptions. "Numbers" is great for geeks like me, its a show about how this FBI agent solves cases with his math-professor brother's help, using crazy formula's and calculations and stuff. "Monk" is a detective who is a little too obsessive compulsive, won't touch anything without using a handi-wipe, and has all kinds of phobias and wierd routines for things like throwing out a tissue. A more light-hearted detective show, but not really as funny, to me, as advertised.

Saturday: As expected, not much going on this day.

Sunday: New Episodes of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" (NBC, 8pm). Detective Goran is amazing, this guy knows everything about everything, from foreign languages, to religion, Tv shows, animals, music, you name it, he knows it, or will look it up. I used to not like the structure and flow of this show, as it differs from other law and order shows, but have grown to like it very much. I also like "the Simpsons" and "the war at home", but tend to forget to watch those on a regular basis.

So thats it, my recap of my TV watching routine. All in all, thats only 5.5 hours a week, not too bad. Of course during down times, i tend to find reruns of silly MTV shows like "next" and "room raiders", which adds to the total.

But fear not, thanks to some solid advice, I have almost read an entire book this week, so far about 200 pages into it. I hope to continue on with this surprising change in free time activity. Also, as the baseball season nears, the fantasy baseball guides will start coming out, and I will have my hands full reading and analyzing them as well.

my last thought is this...i hate being uncertain about things. Its a long story, worthy of its own post one day, but not knowing what is going to happen until it happens really sucks, especially for someone like me who loves to overanalyze things. I just want to thank my friends for tolerating me when i go on my crazy rants about uncertainty and anxiety, as it is definately not one of my favorite personal traits.

thats all for now, i really gotta go!!

later,

Riz

Spelling SUX & the New Year has Begun

2006-01-06T15:05:00.000-08:00

I thought I would start out with a random thought. So I was watching about 2 minutes of the National Spelling Bee over the past weekend, and I slightly troubled by what I saw. Not one of the finalists in these things is ever a normal white kid. They are all Asian or Middle Eastern. I’m by no means racist, but most of the kids in the spelling bee were either a) not born here, or b) appears their parents were not born here. How come there isn’t a finalist whose family has been in America for generations and can trace his family back to the Pilgrims or something? I know a lot of the words they ask contestants to spell have Greek or Latin origins, but seriously, why don’t normal, white, upper-middle class kids to do well in spelling bees? It just makes no sense. You would think they go to the best schools and get the best education. Oh well, I guess they have enough going for them, they don’t feel they need to be able too speill gooder than other kids.

In other news, the week at work is over, and even though it was only a 4 day week, it sucked. I was out on vacation all last week due to our company shutdown, and I could really get used to not working. It was nice and relaxing, I hung out with a friends almost every day, even made it out to Indiana to see my buddy Josh, which was cool. Congratulations to him on getting engaged on New Year’s Eve. New Year’s Eve I took my sister to the Bull’s game, which we had awesome seats for, right behind one of the hoops, 3rd row. We even got cool signs to hold up during free-throws that had the word “clank” on them. Afterwards, we went to my friends’ house to ring in the New Year, and had an awesome time there too. I even managed to win my first game of Beirut, it was team Beirut, but I think I held my own.

So that’s about it for now, just wanted to make sure I got a post in this week, things have been crazy, I’ve gone out to eat all week for lunch, which I never do, and the nights have been good too. One of my favorite bands, Vedera (formerly Veda) will be playing at Schuba’s on February 11th (a Saturday) at 10pm in Chicago. I encourage everyone to check them out and then go see them that night, I know I’ll be there. I’m sure I’ll have plenty to talk about next week, so hopefully I’ll have more time to put some thoughts down.

Later,

Rizzi Bowler

Can I Actually Post Once a Week???

2005-12-27T10:35:00.000-08:00

I found out over the weekend that a few people actually check my blog for updates on a regular basis. So with that in mind, I am going to rededicate myself to posting at least once a week for these dedicated souls. Its good to know my thoughts and experiences are enjoyed, or at least read when bored, by others. So since i haven't posted in about 2 months, I'll try to keep this short.

The biggest highlights in the last 2 months: I went to my friend Mike's wedding in Valparaiso, Indiana. I went by myself, and thought i was in store for another lonely wedding, until my friend Brad showed up and vowed to find me a girl to dance with. He and his lady friend scoured the thin crowd, and managed to find a totally hot, single girl to bring over. We didn't talk much to start with, but once the four of us hit the dance floor, I shit you not, I was all over the place, twirling her and letting loose. The groom even made sure the DJ got around to some slow songs so we could get a little closer, which went very well. The only downside to the night was that she was completely hammered, and could not remember my name or anything else about me. She even managed to fall down a couple times when i wasn't around to hold her up. While she was an amazingly beautiful girl, by the end of the night, i surprisingly wanted her to just go away. But we had fun that night, Can't argue with that. The drive home was interesting, since it had just snowed about 2 inches and Indiana didn't have the roads plowed that well, but we managed, and once I hit Illinois, it was smooth sailing.

Other big highlights: Sitting front row with Rick at the Bulls/Warriors game, courtesy of Interlake Material Handling. I had never been to a Bulls game or sat that close for anything else, so that was awesome. Bill Wennington sat right in front of me the whole night. And December 13th, seeing the band Halifax at the Beat Kitchen was also an awesome experience. And to update from the previous post, Thrice put on an amazing show on October 21st, thanks to everyone who came out for the show and my birthday. The opening act, Veda, was amazing and I now consider them one of my favorite bands right now. Totally unexpected style of music for a band opening for Thrice, but they were awesome. Christmas was fun, I got some cool stuff, including the complete series on DVD of "Undeclared", and a great Minnesota Twins hoodie, and everyone I got something for thoroughly enjoyed their present. My family and I put together a 1000 piece puzzle in less than 3 hours, and I applied for a job as a fantasy sports writer (its a longshot, but it seemed like the perfect job for me).

I finally upgraded to NCAA 2006 Football for the Xbox!!! After winning the national championship with Utah State in the 2004 game, i moved on to 2006. I started my first season at Northern Illinois, and won my first game yesterday afternoon over Virginia. I'm pretty sure i'm the only one that cares though.

My good friend Chris has been in town, and we've managed to hang out a few times which is always good. We saw Aeon Flux, my first movie theatre experience since seeing SAW 2 the day after Thanksgiving, chilled at Nick's Bar in Edison Park which unexpectedly led to some exciting leads in the world of women for me, and chilled at Buffalo Wild Wings with a large group of friends last night before he leaves again today.

Coming events include New Year's Eve going to the Bulls/Suns game with my sister, hanging with my buddy Alex next week after he returns from Japan, and Laurie's party on January 7th. I also have a couple events for the summer that I am hoping to organize, including a trip to Milwaukee to go see the Twins/brewers play and hang out in the parking lot beforehand, going to see the Taste of Chaos, and whenever Veda (now called Vedera) comes back to Chicago, I will be there for sure.

Thats about it for now, I'm going to do my best to update at least once a week, so we'll see how that goes. I should have some stuff to talk about next week, so that should be good motivation for me to post again. In parting i thought i'd leave you with a few new bands i've discovered this year, you may want to check these out if looking for something new.

A Wilhelm Scream - Ruiner (punk)
I am the Avalanche - I am the Avalanche (?) (punk)
Veda - The Weight of an Empty Room (indie)
Anberlin - Never take Friendship Personal (rock)
Halifax - A Writer's Reference EP ( hard rock)
Hawthorne Heights - The Silence in Black and White (Emo)

Another 2-month update!!

2005-10-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, i'm not very good at this. So its been over 2 months since i last updated, which is actually good cuz now i have stuff to write about that doesn't include what i had for lunch or how many games of NCAA 2004 I played last night (the answer to the 2nd one is actually 1 game, a lot less than you expected, huh?).

Anyways, In the past 2 months, nothing too crazy has developed, but a few interesting things to share. I drove to Ohio for a 2 day training seminar on cold-heading, which was pretty interesting at times, boring at others, but the drive was pretty intense, 6 hours 1-way. I went with this guy from work who i'm not a big fan of, so that didn't help, but at least he kept me from falling asleep in the car. On September 24th, I ran the Park Ridge Charity Classic 5K. I actually have been running on the treadmill for the past couple of months, so i was more ready for this than the past 5K i ran last year. I finished in 26:07, which is way better than i thought i would do (i was hoping for under 30:00). I don't think i'll be hitting the 5K circuit anytime soon, but once a year, or maybe 2 times, sounds like a fun thing to do.

Football season is upon us, and the Bears as usual are all over the place, destroying the Detroit Lions but losing games to Cleveland and Washington. As is the case every year it seems, we need more OFFENSE!! Baseball is over, and in my second year in my keeper league, I finished a decent 5th. I go into next year with a solid nucleus of young talent: Jake Peavy, Johan Santana, Ben Sheets, Dan Haren, Joe Mauer, David Wright, Hank Blalock, Grady Sizemore, and Mark Teixeria. I should be able to build around those guys and move up a little in the standings next year. Hockey also started for the first time in 2 years, and i don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't care less. Between Baseball and Football, my time is already overbooked, so Hockey was barely on the radar before the lockout last year. That was just icing on the cake for me to not care.

My Birthday is coming up!!! The odds of me posting again before October 20th are slim, so i just wanted to share that on October 20th, Rizzi Bowler will be turning the old age of 25. We had health tests at work last week, and everything looks good so far after almost 25 years, so I can't complain. For all those interested, the main birthday festivities are Friday night (October 21st) at the Riv, where Thrice will be Headlining a pretty good rock show. Call if interested in acquiring a ticket. This week, we will be enjoying a pre-birthday show by another favorite band, Story of the Year. Also both bands will be releasing new CD's this month, so that should give me some more incentive to post sooner than usual.

I guess thats about it, i should keep this short. I got invited to another wedding this weekend, and will probably have to go alone (man that sucks). Then i found out another friend is getting married (anyone remember Brad M.?), so if invited, i'll probably be attending that alone as well. I really got to do something about my current situation, but other than the occassional + guest invitations, I think I accept and handle my single-ness quite well (not sure if that is a word). Well, i should sign off now, hopefully I'll post again before the end of the 2005!!

later,

Rizzi

Back from Warped Tour

2005-07-28T10:55:00.000-07:00

It has been an interesting week and a half since my last post. Since my softball swing was looking pretty bad, I hit the cages looking to improve, and the results were mixed. Better at bats, but no hits to show for them. I'll take a solid line drive though, eventually that becomes a hit. We lost the big game of winless teams, 9-8, but I felt my pitching was solid (9 runs in 7 innings in softball is pretty solid, all things considered), and I drew a key 1-out walk that led to 2 runs being scored that inning to make it 9-8 after 6 innings. Then, we gathered at one of the guys' houses for a barbeque, and had a great time learning about everyone on the two teams. Looks like the fall league team is close to a reality, and I've been asked to come back and pitch another season. Feels good to be wanted.

Warped tour was this past Saturday, and it was a mixed bag of good and bad. The day started off good, I didn't have to eat the cost of a ticket, as Rick's cousin joined us, and the trip to Tinley Park was a smooth ride. We got to the park a little after 12:30, and I was slightly disappointed that Hawthorne Heights was already playing. Sounded good from the parking lot though. Some highlights of the day were Atreyu's cover of Bon Jovi's "You give love a bad name", Rick's blazing 75 MPH fastball, my anti-blazing 50 MPH fastball, Eric's 10-dollar beer, the guy in the crowd during Matchbook Romance in the leopard-print loincloth thing standing over people talking to them (not sure if anything was under there, and I didn't care to find out) and 2 new thrice songs (i wish i remembered the names). The lowpoints were very low, however. Some people in the Thrice pit thought it would be a good idea to pickpocket people, and unfortunately, friends lost a wallet and a cell phone. That put a damper on the rest of the night, and so we bailed before seeing the Offspring or Avenged Sevenfold play. We did, however, see good stuff from Atreyu, Reliant K, Halifax, Matchbook Romance, Thrice, and Senses Fail. I could have done without the stolen stuff, but overall a good day. After that, we stopped for dinner then made our way home.

I did manage to pick up the Halifax EP while I was there "a Writer's Reference" which was pretty solid, especially for 6 bucks. Sydney is a great song, check it out if you can.

Monday was rough, possible one of the worst nights ever. I drove home in driving rain and couldn't see 5 feet in front of the car, then got home to absolutely no power, and only 1 candle. Needless to say it was a miserable, dark, hot night. Power was not restored until around 2:30 am judging from the blinking clocks when i woke up. Luckily, the rain had stopped earlier so i picked up a few candles later in the evening. Now i'm ready for next time. At least i didn't miss the REAL WORLD tuesday night.

Thats about all for now. Fantasy Football is approaching, so maybe i'll come up with a little top 20 list of players should anyone care for next time.

later,

Rizzi

2 week update...better than last time

2005-07-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, so a little longer than a week, but hey, better than how I was doing this in the past. So what's new?

The new Hawthorne Heights CD is rocking. A lot of screaming like Story of the Year, but a different vibe to the CD. For 10 bucks, not too bad. Definately looking forward to seeing them at Warped Tour next weekend!!! That should be excellent, I will definately have a report next week about that.

Also saw Batman Begins, it was very different from the other Batman movies, darker especially, but overall a good movie. Didn't expect it to run 2 and a half hours, but that was ok. I also rented Employee of the Month, I had never heard of it before i got to blockbuster, but it sounded like a darker version of Office Space. It was a lot different than office space, but still pretty solid. This guy has like the perfect life, then he gets fired from his job and his fiance finds out he's cheating on her and breaks it off, all on the same day. Then he has a rough night. Never really saw the ending coming though, kinda interesting, but one too many twists for me. But if you got time and nothing else is looking good, check it out.

Softball has been interesting over the past couple weeks. yesterday, we finally made it past the 5-inning slaughter rule limit, and we actually had the lead. But that didn't last too long. We were down 2 runs in the top of the 6th with 2 out, 2 runners on, and of course, i'm up to bat. There's a reason I bat 10th in the lineup. i'm not horrible, but i'm not great. After working the count to 1-1, I hit what i thought was good pitch, but popped up to the 2nd baseman to end the game. Not how i would have liked to go down. I gotta work on keeping my swing level, hitting more line drives or grounders.

Thats pretty much about it. Went to a couple cool parties in the last couple weeks, thanks to everyone for hosting. I would host my own, but for those who were there the one time i tried that, we maxed out at about 12 people. I'd like to invite a little more than that, but just wouldn't have the room if people showed up.

Oh, and a quick list of my top 5 TV shows on right now:

1. Numb3rs
2. Monk
3. the Real World: Austin
4. Aqua Teen Hunger Force / Family Guy (adult swim)
5-t. Law and Order: SVU
5-t. Law and Order: CI

Until next week,

Rizzi

2 months later, I return!!

2005-07-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well, It's been over 2 months since I last updated this blog, my apologies to my faithful followers (if I actually have any!!). Most of you who read this know what I've been up to, but if not, here's the recap:

I've seen Star Wars Episode III twice now, and never thought I would actually care this much about a movie, but i was really excited to see this. It was about all that I was expecting, although if anyone can explain to me what General Grievous was, I'm all ears. I've heard some alien/robot mix. I also saw "The Longest Yard" with Adam Sandler and Chris Rock, and Chris Rock has to be the funniest man around right now. Great movie with a lot of great cameos from Dan Patrick of Sportscenter to Stone Cold Steve Austin (WWE).

The new Alkaline Trio CD, Crimson, came out, and its right up there with their previous efforts. Can't pick out any favorite tracks, but its a solid overall listen. 6 months into the new year, the best CD I have heard thus far is "From Under the Cork Tree" by the Chicago Punk band, Fall Out Boy. This has a crazy sound to it, which the guy I work with describes as 80's and I stubbornly deny. But its good stuff with a good tempo, and crazy song titles. Some of the best songs are "Dance, Dance", "I Slept With Someone In Fall Out Boy And All I Got Was This Stupid Song Written About Me", and "Sophomore Slump Or Comeback Of The Year".

Warped Tour is coming up, and I still haven't gotten the tickets in the mail. We all may hate Ticketmaster, but at least when you order tickets from them, you get them in a week or so. Whatever service Warped tour.com uses is ridiculously slow.

Over the weekend we had a rousing discussion of all the stupid, yet addicting, dating shows on MTV, such as "Next", "room Raiders", and "date my mom". It was suprising to me that I am not the only person I know that gets suckered into staying up all night watching marathons of "next". Between that and our "Real World" discussions, I've had the most entertaining discussions this weekend that I've had in a long time.

No Softball this weekend, but we are at the midway point in the season and the Sno-Jokers are 0-5. We came close to beating out the slaughter rule, getting beaten in the bottom of the 5th 14-4. We have yet to survive on to the 7th inning but feel we have it in us for one week. I was 2 for 2 batting out of the 10th position, but am not looking to move up in the order, as I am the starting pitcher. Softball is great and gives me something to look forward to every weekend.

Over the weekend, we had minor chat about what makes Rizzi happy. While the ongoing theory is that nothing makes me happy (or at the most, very, very little), I found that is not true yesterday as we gathered for an amazing game of 3 on 3 whiffleball at Four Seasons park. The field was amazing, and my previous inability to play the field was no where to be found during batting practice as I was making catches that I typically dropped with regularity. Normally insisting on pitching, I instead insisted on playing the field and held my own out there. I also managed to leg out a home run and a triple. I was truly happy yesterday afternoon. I also had another truly happy moment this morning when i got an email from Chris, who is stationed with the Navy in the Persian Gulf. His emails are always very interesting and entertaining and its great to hear that he's doing ok while over there serving our country.

Alright, well, after 2 months away, i don't want to overwhelm anyone. I'll make it a point to update at least every other week, if not more frequently, depending on what material I have to work with.

Happy 4th of July everyone, I'm watching "Independence Day" currently, which I tend to do on the 4th, a silly little tradition of mine. maybe i'll see some of you at the Fireworks tonight!!

Peace,

Rizzi

Random thoughts

2005-04-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Well, nothing exciting is really going on in the world of Rizzibowler, so i figured i would share some randomness with everyone.

I do have a question to start off with, though. I was wondering the other night, who puts those stickers on all the apples that you buy? Cuz i know a machine couldn't do it, so it that really someone's job?

Amongst the 50 or so junk emails i get a day, there was an email with the subject "is Britney pregnant or just fat?". I didn't open it, but reading that made me laugh.

I was watching "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" the other night, and it was the episode with Turketron? on it, a mechanical turkey from the future. Now, it was probably just the fact that they only have so many people to do voices, but the fact that Frylock thought the Turkey sounded familiar to him, and that the Turkey mentioned the Moon, and the voice, just screamed "IGNIGNOT" (the mooninite). But by the end of the show, it seemed pretty clear that that wasn't the case. Oh well.

No new CDs this week, so I had to tap into the collection for something to listen to at work. In the process, i rediscovered how great Incubus' "Make Yourself" CD is.

Fantasy baseball is going really well. In the only league with an entry fee, I am sitting in second place and in good position to come away with another win this week. My top 3 starting pitchers, Johan Santana, Jake Peavy, and Josh Beckett are all doing great. Now we just need to figure out what happened to Oliver Perez and we'll be in great shape.

Whiffleball season is almost upon us!! We need to play a lot of whiffleball this summer. I need the intern to finish school so he'll stop leaving work before lunch. Then we can play in the field next to the building.

Playoffs begin tonight after work in the big bowling league. Our team finished in 6th out of 10 teams, but everyone has a chance in the playoffs. Hopefully we can do well enough to advance to the final 4 next week.

Well, i'm out of stuff to write, and out of time to write it anyways.

later,

rizzibowler

Rizzi leaves the Country? / Rizzi leaves the State?

2005-04-11T10:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it feels good to be back in the good old U S A. Yes, for the first time in 24 years, I was forced to leave the country. I had to go to San Luis Potosi, Mexico, to visit a customer of ours, to tour their facility and go through their quality procedures. Our flight connected in Houston, so this also marked the first time I had ever been to the lone star state. Mexico wasn't too bad, the hotel we stayed at was like a mansion, and everything went smoothly. However, not understanding the language makes it difficult to explore during your down time, so we did not do much exploring. Plus the guy i went with acted like a 5-yr old and i had to pay for everything and handle all the arrangements, calling Taxis, waking him up, etc. And he's 40-yrs old, go figure. He also liked to pick up scrap metal off the plant floor and poke me in the arm with it during our tours. Yeah, I wasn't going to talk about people, but I had to make an exception for this guy. He's actually an ok guy, just needs to act a little more professional in front of our multi-million dollar customers. Oh, and on the flight back, I got to watch the movie Elektra from Houston to Chicago. Not the best movie, but i had run out of stuff to read and needed to fill the time. Jennifer Garner just looks too nice to play an Assassin. All the flights went pretty smoothly, and I made it back in one piece. But I think if given the choice next time, I don't think i'd want to go to Mexico again.

Yesterday, i left the state of Illinois yet again. 2 trips in one week? that can't be Rizzi? Yes, it can. My alma mater??? Valparaiso University held a concert, and one of my favorite bands was headlining, Something Corporate. My sister got the tickets, and after listening to some of their stuff, actually wanted to go, which was cool. So we hung out for a while in the afternoon, and then headed over to the show. Ludo, the opening act, was a little too wierd for me, although the music was good. The lead singer reminded me of the crazy lead singer of Alien Ant Farm, with all his crazy/wierd dance moves. They looked alike too. Then, Motion City Soundtrack came out. I had heard a couple songs before, but not much before. They actually sounded pretty good, I just couldn't hear a lot of the words. But they were solid.

Finally, Something Corporate entered. They started a little slow, as i didn't care for the first song much, "Cavanaugh Park", but a rare performance of the piano-only "globes and maps" more than made up for it. They also rocked an 11-minute version of "Constantine", normally only 8 1/2 minutes. New words in there too, that was cool. Other highlights included "Drunk Girl", "21 & Invincible", and the set closer (and arguably their best song) "I Woke up in a Car". A great performance all around by them, too bad most of the people at the show didn't seem to care what was going on. but i hope they made a few new fans out of it. Driving home tired at 11:30 was not a lot of fun, but I made it, ready to start another week at work.

I managed to win opening week in my Fantasy keeper baseball league, and the league at work. Thanks especially to SP Josh Beckett, 2B Brian Roberts, and RP Brandon Lyon for making this week a success. Not that they would care or anything.

Oh, and the guy that made our Subs at Subway in Valparaiso, this guy was insane. Probably just a high schooler or college student, he was all by himself and swamped, and cranked out the subs like crazy, and kept his cool. I've never seen anything like it. I wanted to shake his hand, but of course, he was too busy making subs. If you're out there reading this dude, you ROCK!!!

Thats about it for this week. I need to get back to work again.

-rizzibowler

Rain is not your friend

2005-03-31T11:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday started off so great. Took a half day at work so i could go to see Michelle Branch and Jessica Harp rock the House of Blues with my sister for her birthday. Didn't need a coat when we left, cuz it was 75 degrees out. Then we got to the HOB, and left the car. 5 minutes after getting in line, it started to pour. Then it started to hail. It was the least amount of fun i've had a quite a few days. I've gone swimming before, but I've never been THAT wet. Then, after it let up, it rocked us again. Guys were selling Umbrellas to people in line, but they would bring one at a time, and say its their only one, like I don't recognize the same guy after his 5th pass. The doors took forever to open, so we finally broke out in full sprint for Harry Carey's restaurant to dry off a little. That place = Expensive. A small coke, no refill was 2 bucks!! At least they give you some free chips when you sit down. Then, we ran back to the HOB an hour later and missed the opening act, but i think it was worth it. I was wet the whole time, really not fun. There was this drunk old lady rocking out in front of us, quite entertaining. Oh, and that Tyler Hilton guy who played second, has little talent, but i can't see him getting by on his looks either. Michelle and Jessica rocked out pretty good, and it was a good show. The water sloshing around in my shoe, however, made standing just a little uncomfortable.

So that's my little story for the day. Now i get to sit here and laminate 87 pages of instructions for our manufacturing plant, cuz a certain copy company wanted to charge me over 200 bucks to do it. Its not my money, but i'm still thrifty like that.

Oh, and the Thrice DVD/Cd, "If we could only see us now" is the longest documentary DVD i've ever seen about a band!! It was over an hour and a half, and thats before you watch the bonus material like live clips and videos. The biggest downer is there is no full set live material on there to watch, just certain songs and small clips in the movie. The B-sides CD that comes with though is solid, with acoustic stuff and stuff that was included on compilations and stuff.

Here's some random thoughts of my day to close with:

Warped Tour 2005 - gonna rock
Plain M&M's - ALWAYS rock
If you stand in the rain long enough, your clothes will bleed.
My Minnesota Twins will win the American League Central Division
NFL Draft - Chicago Bears should draft Braylon Edwards, although he is from University of Michigan, and it would be the first round (I cringe at the thought of David Terrell pt. 2)

Ok, now its time to get back to work. Sorry i don't have any cool pictures to post, maybe i'll work on that...but probably not. I will, however, update my profile thing if i remember

Later,

rizzibowler

I'm back...finally

2005-03-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

Ok, so no one actually read the first post, probably because i didn't tell anyone about it. which is a good thing, since i didn't follow it up for like 2 weeks. I forget stuff, ya know? Plus I'm new to this whole thing. Its wierd, i'm writing this like people actually care? Anyways....

So whats new? Fantasy Baseball draft is almost over. It's a keeper draft, so you can keep players year to year, so its important to draft the right players, plus, age can be a factor as a good young player has more years ahead than a older player. There are 10 teams total in our league, with an active 25 man roster. We start 9 positional players, including DH, five starting pitchers and five relievers. My team was built around good starting pitching, and I was able to assemble a rotation of: Johan Santana, MIN, Josh Beckett, FLA, Jake Peavy, SD, Oliver Perez, PIT, and Kelvim Escobar, LAA. I think its the best rotation in the league, but we'll see. Unfortunately, my bullpen is empty, its all middle relievers, as the team I inherited had no closers and i chose not to go after any in the draft. Its my team's biggest achille's heel. My lineup is also solid, but very young, as i went with a youth movement after my last place finish. Only one player is left from the team I took over when I joined, First baseman Mark Teixiera from Texas. The offense should be ok, but is a little slow, and stolen bases do count. I'm hoping for big things from Joe Mauer this year as well. As for my fantasy baseball advice this week, i suggest the following sleeper picks: Starting Pitcher Danny Haren, OAK, Starting Pitcher Gavin Floyd, PHI, OF Jeremy Reed, SEA, SS Jason Bartlett, MIN, SS Clint Barmes, COL, and Relief Pitcher Huston Street, OAK.

On to other things, I finally saw the trailer for the new Star Wars movie, man it looks great. I don't think i'll ever like that series more than the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but both Star Wars trilogies, thus far, have been solid. I hope this movie as is good as it looks, and ties all the movies together as it should.

I guess its CD review time? Here's some reviews i said i would get to, hopefully I remembered them all:

Jimmy Eat World - Futures: This CD grew on me slowly, and I like the album as a whole. Not a lot of songs jump out at me though, as being great, other than "Pain" and "Work", which happen to be the singles. But it did make me go back and listen to the Bleed American album, and that album is great too. But if you are looking for heavier stuff, Futures might not do it for you.

Green Day - American Idiot: Lots of good stuff here, "American Idiot", "Holiday" and "Blvd of Broken Dreams" are my favorite songs. But another good album here. I've always been a fan of Green Day, they were just never one of my favorites. This album fits in with that description.

Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal: Saw this band open the Nintendo tour with Story of the Year, and thought they were solid, so i bought the old album at the show. Rather dissappointed with that one. But i decided to give this new album a shot, and this was sooo much better. The music is great, the lyrics are great too. The vocals take a little getting used to, but great album top to bottom. Check out "Paperthin Hymn" and "the Feel good drag".

Straylight Run - Straylight Run: A surprisingly good album, a little more mellow than i usually listen to. I really like the piano, reminds me of Something Corporate. The vocals are good, and the female vocalist (i'm drawing a blank on her first name, something Nolan) did well with 2 songs but should have gotten in more. Two great songs to check out that have a good tempo and are just really good listens are "The Tension and the Terror" and "Mistakes we knew we Were Making". I'd recommend this to a lot of people. Half this band used to be in Taking Back Sunday, which i've only heard a little by them, but it sounds nothing like them from what i can tell.

Jessica Harp - Preface: Ok, I didn't know who she was until she joined forces with my personal favorite, Michelle Branch, to form a duo called "the Wreckers". the one song they did on the One tree Hill soundtrack, "the Good Kind" is amazing, so i thought i would check out her website only solo CD from 2002. Its definately leaning towards country, so its a little twangy (as I like to call it) and i'm not a country fan, so that didn't help, but the first two tracks are really good, "not today" and "addict", much better than the rest of the album. If you could find those two songs somewhere to download, check them out, otherwise you'll have to do without. HOpefully the Wreckers album will be out soon, which i hope is as good as i think it will be. I'm going to see them wednesday at the House of Blues, hopefully they'll do a good set.

Well, thats about all the time i have for now, I'll try to get a regular weekly post in, if i don't forget. I just got the new Thrice DVD/CD "If we could only see us now".

later,

rizzibowler

Welcome to the Rizzibowler blog

2005-03-12T19:43:00.000-08:00

Hey what's going on? Not sure if anyone is ever gonna read this, but I've finally joined in on the blog thing that's going on. I'm not gonna post anything today, other than this intro, but I'll try to post something at least once a week.

So what will you find here? I'm gonna give you my opinion on some stuff I like, and maybe some stuff i don't like. I'll post reviews of CDs I buy, movies I've seen, etc. I'll also post stuff about fantasy baseball, cuz that's what i'm into right now. I don't see myself posting stuff about people I know, since that just gets people into trouble, and it happens all too often. Plus, i want them to read this too.

So when i get to it, next week i'll post reviews on the following CD's:

Jimmy Eat World - Futures
Green Day - American Idiot
Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal
Jessica Harp - Preface
Straylight Run - Straylight Run

Mainly, i'm into punk, emo, and other similar genres so most of the reviews will be from that group.

I'll also post my fantasy baseball team for this year once the draft is complete.

-later-